Beginnings of A Film Career
Later, while Browning was working as director of a variety theater in New York, he met D. W. Griffith also from Louisville. He began acting along with Murray on single-reel nickelodeon comedies for Griffith and the Biograph Company.
In 1913 Griffith split from Biograph and moved to California. Browning followed and continued to act in Griffith's films, now for Reliance-Majestic Studios, including a stint as an extra in the epic Intolerance. Around that time he began directing, eventually directing 11 short films for Reliance-Majestic. Between 1913 and 1919, Browning would appear as an actor in approximately fifty motion pictures.
In June 1915, he crashed his car at full speed into a moving train. His passengers were film actors Elmer Booth and George Siegmann. Booth was killed instantly, while Seigmann and Browning suffered serious injuries, including in Browning's case a shattered right leg and the loss of his front teeth. During his convalescence, Browning wrote scripts, and did not return to active film work until 1917. Booth's sister, Margaret Booth later a famous MGM editor, never forgave Browning for the loss of her brother.
Read more about this topic: Tod Browning
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